Commercial aircraft operators and passengers are increasingly requesting in-flight entertainment (IFE) and electrical power outlets to enable passengers and/or crew members to operate various personal electronic devices, such as laptop computers, at their seats. To provide passengers and/or crew members with such features, electrical power and data must be delivered to each seat. Power and data are delivered to aircraft passenger seats via one or more cables that extend from a power or data source to the passenger seats. The cables typically extend through one or more seat tracks recessed within the floor of the aircraft passenger cabin. The seat track is covered by a seat track cover.
The passenger seats are mounted to the passenger cabin floor via the same seat track that the power/data cables extend through. Connection between pig-tail cables of the seats and the cables within the seat track is made in a variety of different ways. For example, a hole is often made in the seat track cover so that either the cables within the seat track or the cables of the seats can pass through the hole to mate with each other.
In view of the foregoing, it would be highly desirable to provide a seat support structure that provides even easier and more convenient access to cabling used to supply power, or to enable data transfer, between a given seat and its associated seat track.